Re “Proposed Amendment Would Enable States to Repeal Federal Law” (news article, Dec. 20):
The proposed constitutional amendment to allow two-thirds of the states to overturn any federal law or regulation turns James Madison’s original proposal on its head.
Madison favored granting Congress the power to overturn state laws. The framers thought better of Madison’s proposal and adopted the balanced federal system we now have. Both Madison’s and the latest proposal would gradually unbalance the federal structure in favor of either the central government or the states.
The proposed “repeal amendment” would also undermine the rationale for the Supreme Court as we now know it. What happens to the Supreme Court as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution if two-thirds of the states may repeal a federal law or regulation for any reason or no reason? The Constitution eventually becomes the plaything of political expediency and whimsy.
Michael J. Polelle
Chicago, Dec. 20, 2010
The writer is a professor of law at John Marshall Law School.
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